Kat en Muis

This is a gambling game for two players and requires two dice, two counters and chips or money. The stakes are unlimited by anything except the players’ inclination or ability to pay. RULES OF PLAY 1 The players take it in turn to throw both dice. The player with the higher score becomes Cat; the other, Mouse. They put the agreed stakes in the pots: Cat in her Kattepot on red 66 and Mouse in his Muizepot on black 66. Cat moves to the top left-hand corner of the board and Mouse to the bottom right. 2 Cat begins the game by throwing both dice and preparing to move her counter along the Cat Walk - the red numbered squares - to square 3 if the dice show 2 and 1, square 4 if they show 3 and 1, square 5 if they show 2 and 3 or 4 and 1, and so on. If Cat throws a double 1 she moves to square 11, in which case Mouse must pay her two chips. If she throws a double 6 she pays two chips to Mouse and does not move. If she lands on 5 she loses her next turn, but if she lands on 10 she may throw again; if she lands on 4 or 9 she pays one chip to Mouse. 3 Mouse now throws and moves in the same way down the Mouse Run - the black numbered squares - paying or receiving the same number of chips. 4 Cat’s turn again, and the same rules apply. But there are more: if Cat has to jump her counter over Mouse’s, she pays him one chip; if she lands on square 15 she loses her next turn; square 20 gives her a second throw; and 16 means another chip paid to Mouse. If she is already past square 11 by this turn, a double 2 will take her to square 22 - otherwise it is only the total 4 that counts. If she lands on square 22, Mouse must pay her two chips. 5 Mouse follows Cat, and Cat then follows Mouse again, each racing for the other’s pot on square 66. The earlier rules still apply: landing on 22, 33,44 or 55 earns two chips; once past 22 a double 3 leads straight to square 33, and once past 33 two 4s lead to 44 and past that two 5s to 55. Once past 55 a double six is a passport straight to the pot. Before that a double 6 still means a lost turn and a forfeit of two chips to the other player. Landing on squares 25,35,45 or 65 means a lost turn, while achieving squares 30, 40, 50 or 60 gains a second throw; stopping on 25, 36, 49 or 64 entails paying over one chip to the other player. 6 If Cat or Mouse throws a total which will take him or her beyond square 66, he or she has to turn back to 48. But the player who reaches 66 first WINS the game and takes both stakes.

The pictures on the board are taken from the works of three leading illustrators: the English artists Alfred Elwes and Harrison Weir, and the American Palmer Cox.